Next generation networks (NGNs) facilitate communication of voice, data, media, etc., via packets of information (e.g., data packets) that can be transported through a communication network via a desired packet-related protocol(s) (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP), Voice over IP (VoIP), multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), session initiation protocol (SIP), etc.). One of the network components that can facilitate communicating packets across a network to their respective destinations (e.g., communication devices) is a router. A communication network can include a number of routers that can facilitate routing or directing respective packets to respective next destinations (e.g., a node, another router, a, etc.) towards their final destinations based at least in part on information associated with the respective packets.
Certain conventional routers that are built around a single-stage crossbar and a centralized scheduler do not scale, and (in practice) do not provide sufficient quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees. One deficiency with conventional routers for NGNs is router scalability. Router scalability can be translated into two dimensions: port speed scalability and port number scalability. Current routers can be required to scale on the number of ports, rather than port speed. The immediate reasons are twofold. First, the network line rates may be required to remain stable for a certain period of time to support an existing installed base of network line cards (e.g., operation carrier (OC)-192/768 line cards). Therefore, router port speed can increase discretely, not gradually. Second, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) can vastly increase the number of channels available on a single fiber, but not the speed of a single channel. At the router, this can translate into more ports at the same speed.
The above-described deficiencies of today's systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with the state of the art and corresponding benefits of some of the various non-limiting embodiments may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.